By the time Avianna reached middle school, she had already spent years fighting racism, self-hatred and suicidal thoughts. A twelve-year-old Afro-Latina, Avianna went through two Denver schools being bullied by her classmates, including one who called her and other Black students the N-word and hit them, she says. And her difficulties didn’t end at school: In the last six months, Avianna lost both her fourteen-year-old brother and her grandfather to cancer.